My sixth and the 11th Lone Star/Paul Malvern Production directed by westerns veteran Robert N. Bradbury (father of westerns star Bob Steele) and another good one. IMDB says its 59:00, but unfortunately we get 49:39 - that's a lot of missing action. The boss bad guy is veteran Earl Dwire as a phony Mexican with a rather phony and humorous Mexican accent - he is ruthless and vicious. He leads an equally nasty band of henchmen legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt and Buffalo Bill, Kr./Jay Wilsey. Sheila Terry stands in as Wayne's love interest - IMDb says between 1932-38 she appeared in 43 films and then her career bottomed out - she committed suicide in 1957. The plot pits Dwire's desire for control against Wayne and Hayes. Plot devices used in other films in this series include: falling and jumping into a stream, the heroine risking her life ridding back and forth to bring Wayne a warning, an excessively dense sheriff who keeps arresting Wayne and stupidly interfering with the capture of the bad guys, the use of dynamite and finding Wayne wed at the end. A fast moving 49 minutes - wish the rest of the film was here.

I've only seen one version of this movie that isn't missing a lot of footage from the point where Yakima Canutt and the other henchman was chasing the girl and Duke saying "someone to take care of you". I figure it must be roughly five minutes or so of film that hit the floor somewhere and was never spliced back together. I'm not sure where I saw that one version. It seems like perhaps it was the Fox/Lorber TV edits (with the cheese music soundtracks) that still had this chase included intact.

Unlike the 'true "B" western fashion', the good guys win out in these Paul Malvern/John Wayne films mainly because Wayne's characters outsmart and out-persist the baddies. Malvern hired writers who were often capable of producing sufficiently twisty plot lines and maintaining enough tension to draw in the audience and keep things interesting. When combined with Wayne's acting ability (yes, he could act, and he showed it in these early films where he was young and full of energy, before he took to coasting on his name recognition), and his repertory of maneuvers (both trick riding and other sorts), the result was an eminently watchable series of films that eventually propelled Wayne into the "A" features list.

This film makes use of one of the more common tropes to be found in Westerns and many other similar stories in other genres: the dumb-as-rocks law enforcement that always manages to put the collar on the wrong person. The sheriff of this film makes up for his profound lack of intelligence by "I tell ya, I don't trust nobody!" We soon discover that his sociopathic mean streak is further augmented by his inclination to take the credit for other people's work. He's a politician, you see, more concerned for his reputation than his people's welfare. Therefore, Tobin (Wayne) must catch the Bad Guy and his gang while defeating a rotten sheriff who is determined to clap Tobin in irons. This gives Wayne plenty of opportunity to show his stuff, and us more story to watch. ;)

The sheriff does take a fall in the end, but he doesn't fall hard enough to suit me, which is why I call it "somewhat satisfying." Nevertheless, of the Malvern/Wayne films I've seen here on IA, the writing and performances make this one of the better ones (IMO, of course).

I think one of the things that surprises me most about this series is how well preserved the films are for their age. Unfortunately, though, the prints are blurred just enough that I cannot recognize the groups of people who are riding hither, thither, and yon in many of the chase scenes (are they the outlaw's gang, the sheriff's posse, or—?), which makes it impossible to follow some of the story details. That disappoints me because I usually want to get everything out of a film that the producers worked hard to put in there. What I could get made it well worth watching, though.